Tragedy Loves Comedy
by Neranimmisar
Summary: Kagome's living in the modern world years after the well closed and she left Japan for America in hopes of escaping her past.  Never realizing parts of it would come back to haunt her in the most unexpected ways.  Rating may or may not rise in the future.
1. Otherworldly

**Tragedy Loves Comedy**

**Chapter One:** _**Otherwordly**_

Kagome slammed the door shut to the back room, then kicked it several times more when it didn't shut any one of the times she tried to close it. The small business where she worked only had a tiny office covered in papers yellowed with age and the door that separated it to the only slightly larger stockroom only actually clicked shut if luck happened to be on your side at the time.

It was concrete floors back here, boxes piled everywhere but a single path to the bathroom that she'd avoided sense she'd first arrived, and the office. It was closing on the Christmas season, with black friday only a week away, and things were incredibly busy for the shop. The bathroom door she was relieved worked, she was fairly certain some of the things growing inside could be used for biological warfare. She'd only gone in once and no one else that worked there used it. There was a wal-mart in a larger parking area connected to this one and everyone walked there on break, even the manager.

Corner Toys, which was a name lacking completely in creativity as it was a toy shop that was on the corner of the mini-mall styled building it was a part of. It was a privately owned place that had a lot of older fashioned toys as opposed to any of the newer video games. Still, it seemed to keep a pretty steady pace of business. Between it and an Electronics Boutique in it's gathered shops this place was constantly busy this time of year.

Sadly, along with the bustle and high income also came everyone wanting to play with things, break things, knock things out of place without picking them up, or just be generally completely out of the mood of 'the season'. She'd seen fewer people being jolly as opposed to holding a general sense of irritation. This included her boss, who had asked her to close for him for the fourth time that week, the shop closed at seven for holiday hours (two hours later than normal). It was ten and she was still finishing up counting the money after the long task of making the front room presentable and she was two penny's short...

He'd be all over her if she didn't put two pennies in the drawer...and she didn't wanna lock up, walk all the way to her car in the stupid snow and cold, hope she had some, then walk back. But she'd already recounted three times and checked the drawer in the front twice. Thus why her boot continued to play ping pong with the door.

"Stupid worthless piece of garbage...he won't even give me all the hours I'm here. He'll write it down as two like he always does...he doesn't care if I stay later. Last time he called me a liar cause I told him it was 3!" Her voice got steadily louder as she banged the door more and more until it cracked and she winced, stopping her tantrum and checking where the wood had cracked a large piece off the back. "Crap!"

She frowned at it, it hadn't fallen off completely yet, but likely it wouldn't be too long...she stopped her kicking and shook her head, she'd burn the bridge of the door if he even noticed. If she was lucky it would break completely on the other assistant manager's shift and he'd take the blame, he was a pervert with a temper anyway. Not that she could say much there either, the owner was the other manager's father and sort of a lecher himself at times. If she tried to sue for sexual harassment it wouldn't matter, they'd either lie about it or fire her and she wouldn't win in court. She'd have to be able to afford a lawyer and they didn't pay her well as it was.

She was barely scraping by going to art school and working here in her spare time. She still needed to finish a project for class tomorrow and she hadn't even gotten time to put sketches on the canvas.

"Pennies." She reminded herself of her current trouble and then frowned, picking up her jacket only to hear coins falling out of the pocket. "Oh I hope there were some in there."

She searched the paper littered floor and managed to find two quarters, a nickle, and three pennies. She held up the small pieces of copper in triumph and put two of them in the cloth zipping envelope with the overview of the day's wages.

_"Two-thousand dollars..." _She thought wistfully as she put it in the safe and closed it, spinning the combination and then putting on her coat and replacing her own change. _"I know a lot of it was credit cards, but man, if they make that much a day they can afford to pay me more than seven bucks an hour."_

She put on her coat, fastening the buttons. She'd moved to the states after she'd finished in the feudal era, her younger days of fighting Naraku and being a priestess seemed like a completely different life now. She never did manage to sleep well or stay healthy while she was still near the well so when she finished high school the only thing she'd had high enough grades in to get into a college was art. So she'd applied to places in the states as her English had never been that bad either and surprise surprise she'd gotten accepted to an institute in Omaha, Nebraska.

Things here were different than home and it'd helped her adjust, though they were expensive and it took getting a few different jobs to keep her going. She'd gone through a couple roommates but finally rented a place by herself and was managing to keep afloat; if only barely.

Her mother sent her money sometimes but Kagome didn't tell her how close she was any given time to not making tuition even with assistance. She didn't want to make her mother worry anymore than she already did.

She finished getting the coat on, giving the office a final glance over before putting on gloves then picking up her purse and keys. She slipped out of the backroom, into the more quaint, and once again spotless main area, going past the isle of dolls staring at her. It still creeped her out a little some nights, when she first started she went a long way around just to avoid the doll isle at night. She'd already pulled and closed the shutters and now she left outside and closed the door, lifting the keys to lock it.

Upon leaving she was hit by a wall of bitter cold, stinging her cheeks and nose, it seeped into her past the coat like the layer of protective cotton wasn't there at all. The news had given a high of six degrees, she figured that it was probably much lower, when a wind blew she had to force herself to finish locking the door after gasping at the painful edge of the chill. She was starting to shiver even as she began the long walk to the car parked off in the Walmart area. They were suppose to avoid parking in the places where customers could use the parking more. In this season it seemed overly strict as they weren't even parking in the mini-malls lot anymore. She wasn't sure if the owner had approved this with walmart or if he was just so much of a cheapskate he didn't care if they suffered. She figured it was the later.

Her hands were shaking as she tried to get the keys in the lock and it took her a few attempts before she did. Getting out of the frigid winds was nice, as her face already felt numb and her ears burned, she'd of course forgotten her scarf at home. Though sitting on the cold leather seat of the car didn't really help her hold warmth. She shoved the keys in the ignition and started it up, turning on the heater to blast mode and pointing the fans away from her while they still blew cool air.

It was torment every night running to the car like this, and it was only suppose to get colder next week. Her teeth chattered as she played with the radio searching for a song she wanted to listen to, anything that would help her stay awake on the drive home.

When her hands listened enough to push the right buttons despite the shaking she finally settled on some rock station which she turned up a little. She didn't recognize the song that was on but it was fast paced and the singer was annoying enough she doubted she'd sleep to it unless someone knocked her into unconsciousness.

She rocked in her seat and blew into her hands to warm them, she knew she should have paid the extra for the seat warmers.

It had been three years since she'd helped to kill Naraku and returned to her own time. She was nineteen and would be twenty before much longer. Fifth of a century old and she already felt as if she'd lived for several more decades. It was like her hope had died with the spider she'd helped crush.

The car heated a bit and she pushed the button for the de-froster and relaxed a little as her body didn't feel the need to overcompensate for the weather. She turned on her lights and put the small car into drive, moving out of the parking lot by turning onto one of the main roads in the area. All but deserted at the late hour except for the poor people still working at the eternally open Walmart. Most of the locals were wise enough to hide inside as much as possible in the arctic cold that had taken over the place.

This city was the closest she'd ever come to believing in the phrase 'when hell freezes over' it was absolutely dreadful in the winter. She was convinced whoever thought they should stop and stay here originally was a masochist. Considering her boss and family had been from here for ages she could add sadist to that list if they were descended from the idiot.

She grit her teeth, it was going to be almost eleven by the time she got home, fed Buyo, got ready for bed and ate herself. She still had to finish the painting she needed to turn into class tomorrow and she hadn't even picked out anything defined for her sketch...more or less gotten to work on it.

Even if she could bullshit her way through a simple painting she needed an idea, then the time to finish it, at least a few hours for something not too complex. She had to be up to get ready for class at eight, she wasn't going to get much rest tonight, just like the past few so she should be getting used to it.

"I don't work tomorrow." She reminded herself, it had become a mantra to comfort herself when she was feeling particularly down about her compact schedule.

She got to the house and looked at the car's door with trepidation, she knew what was coming and hated it so much. She bit her lip though and after turning the car off and making sure the lights were off she opened the door and made the dash for her apartment. It was a two-level place and she'd gotten the bottom level at least which made it easier to run too but they'd put a woman with kids above her so most of the time when she did have a day to stay at home they were pounding so much on her roof she wanted to leave.

Thankfully it wasn't far from her parking spot and she reached it, unlocked it, and hurried inside, slamming it shut and turning on her light. She took a deep breath as she'd been holding it during the mad dash, and frowned at Buyo from where he was giving her a dirty look in his bed.

"Get over it." She told him plainly. "All you have to deal with is a couple cool breezes, I have to actually go out in it."

He grunted at her and laid his head back down as if he didn't care what she had to say, there was no excuse for interrupting his nap. She rolled her eyes as she hurried to take her jacket off and hang it up. Moving quickly across the apartment, the main room was rather bear, a small tv and vcr that were gathering dust from lack of use. A futon and the cats bed next to a climbing/clawing post, and a whole corner dedicated to art supplies. Currently it housed a blank canvas and the paints she hadn't even opened yet, along with other art sets and sketch pads. It connected into a clean kitchette except for the bowl of half eaten cereal from this morning. Then a hallway connected to the single bedroom and the bathroom.

She moved over and poured some food in the ungrateful sleeping feline's bowl and then pulled herself out a microwave dinner. She didn't even look at what it was til she stabbed the top of the plastic so she could shove it in the microwave. Chicken Nuggets, Corn, and Mac & Cheese. It wasn't exactly the most nutritional meal but it would have to do. She moved back out of the kitchen and to her bedroom, getting out of her work uniform to toss it in the washer. She was grateful this place at least offered her her own washer and dryer and she didn't have to fight over them with insane neighbors like other places she'd lived. Glancing at her old computer with a sigh, she wouldn't have time to chat with anyone tonight.

Half naked she grabbed some pajamas and unmentionables before jumping into the shower. She wanted a nice bath after being on her feet all day but knew that wasn't possible so instead washed her hair and body up quickly, rinsed, dried her body and left her hair dripping as she moved back out to eat her microwave dinner with a glass of water.

As she chowed down she reached over and got her folder from class, flipping it open to the assignment due tomorrow.

"_**Paint in any medium you wish. Assignment must fall under this word: Otherworldly."**_

"Why do they always have to be so damn abstract." She muttered as she read the short prompt for the assignment. "I should be able to do something simple but fitting. All sorts of things can be otherworldly at least I suppose."

She nodded to herself, eating with one hand and half sketching in her book as she did. Finishing the meal and with her stomach still grumbly at her she grabbed a granola bar to help her body calm itself. Chewing and swallowing some water as she was still half sketching, hoping some random idea would come to mind. Then scowling a little as she finished her impromptu meal and looked at it more fully.

It was wispy, as if the man within was walking from a cloud. A regal, elf like face with piercing eyes being the clearest lines of the pictures otherwise foggy perspective. It was simple and just a sketch, but she recognized it even without the moon and the claw-marks on the face. She'd just sketched out Sesshomaru.

She frowned as she looked at it. Yes, it sure was...the kimono, the boa tail thing he always had was there, originally she was going to draw a man as if he was made of clouds...in her busy moments her subconscious must have pulled him out instead. The armor was there, even a half-assed version of the cherry blossom symbol on the shoulder of his kimono had begun to take shape.

Occasionally when she hadn't been paying much attention to her sketches in the past she'd ended up sketching Inuyasha or one of her other friends from the fuedal age, though she'd done what she could to avoid it, as the reminders were still painful. She'd always avoided using them as inspirations in assignments even though for some it would have made it much easier. She'd never drawn Sesshomaru before, not that they'd really ever been friends so much as hesitant allies at the end of her time in the feudal age.

It was true though, Seshomaru was as otherworldly a creature as she could really conceive. Remembering him didn't really hurt the same way the others had, it wasn't as if they'd ever been more than tentative allies in the battle against Naraku. The first two times they'd met he'd tried to kill her with those poisonous claws of his, but then he'd made up for that eventually by saving her several times as well. Though it was hard to tell if he'd ever intended to beyond using her for her holy powers against Naraku. He'd always been a mysterious power that even his half brother had never fully understood.

She approached her canvas and changed her initial sketch from his human form to a softened version of his demon form against a cloudscape. It was actually not as hard as she'd thought it would be. She had to sketch lightly though so the lines wouldn't show up beneath the paints.

She had to chuckle a little, she never thought she'd be painting a sort of portrait of Sesshomaru for an art class, it was a bit strange but she really just didn't have any other ideas and if she didn't start she wouldn't finish and she wouldn't sleep.

She spent her time working remembering the various strange encounters they'd had with the full demon and before long managed to finish, leaning back to gauge the work. She gave him the entwined tails that curled into the clouds where it was hard to distinguish one from the other. The body was even difficult to pick out as at first it seemed like just a cloudy sky, but as you watched you could pick out the lines and seperations that made him the flying wolf. Helped by the small streaks of pink on the dog's head and the red eyes, which she left as the most instantly recognizable part of the painting. She hadn't seen him change that often, but it still stuck with her even after years had passed.

She did a few final touches, cleaning it up to where she was happy with it, it did take her several hours but she sighed in relief when she was finally done. Leaving it to dry and yawning. Cleaning off her brush and pallet before heading in to bed, ignoring her computer as she could just check it in the morning. Pulling the blankets up close and snuggling into them for a little bit of rest before the insanity began again tomorrow morning.

**End Chapter**

So, I have some ideas but if people aren't interested I'll probably just leave it there. I have a lot of hobbies and other fictions I can work on if I don't get any feedback I guess I'll know.

-Nera

No reviews and therefore no comments for any reviewers yet.


	2. Mundane

**Chapter Two:** _**Mundane**_

She'd never seen the ice on the bridge, it was one of the hazards here, black ice. It crept up unnoticed and then 'BAM' you were spinning out of control. It was a horribly frightening and dizzying feeling doing circles like that in a car, as if you were doing something completely out of the realm of natural flow. Which she was, but she didn't like it, it was only after the car had safely and suddenly come to a halt in a pile of snow that she began to breath again. Her heart dropped back into her chest from where it had risen into her throat and she shivered out of the shock of what had just happened more than cold.

Thankfully there had only been one other car on the road and it had miraculously managed to miss her as she lost control, she'd been certain she was going to crash into it. She carefully tried the gas, gripping the wheel when the car slid a little at first, drifting a moment before the treads caught something more solid and let her slowly retake the street. The snow had been so dreadful they'd canceled classes half-way through the day.

"At least I got to turn in my painting." She muttered as if trying to grasp the one decent thing that had happened to her lately.

_ Her teacher, a tiny middle aged woman with wild blonde but graying hair and wide brimmed glasses that made her look more insane than wise had absolutely loved the painting._

_ "It's like you just picked up a little bit of your people's history and placed it neatly on the canvas, it fits what I wanted to a tee my girl." She'd stated and patted her on the shoulder several times without realizing she'd been making Kagome uncomfortable. "Best in class thus far for certain. You are showing definite improvement. I can't wait to see what next the project after thanksgiving break brings."_

She hadn't even gotten a chance to check on what the next project was, she was too busy trying to hurry home, glad the teacher wanted to keep the piece at the college for a while to display it as it was one less thing to carry.

More so now as it probably would have gotten damaged in the near collision half-crash. She already figured she probably had a few dings and dents thanks to that little near death experience, hating that she had to keep driving as she really would rather not but it was the only way to get home and it was already beginning to snow again.

She snailed across the rest of the dangerous area and reached a clearer patch of street that had actually been before noticing the car she thought she'd missed parked off to the side with a tall man with dark hair waving at her.

"Great..." She grumbled pulling off to the side behind him. "Guess I didn't get off so lucky."

ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo

"Would you like something else to drink before we land?" The stewardess had been paying him extra special attention throughout the flight, and didn't cease to do so now. He merely glanced up and shook his head negatively once. He was simply glad they'd be landing soon, he hated flying, it was always difficult on his sharp senses and left him disoriented and with a headache for a short while afterward. This trip had been worse than some as they'd had to circle for the past half hour waiting for the snowstorm below to clear enough for them to land.

He normally didn't have need of the human flying contraptions, being well and capable of doing so on his own, but he knew that flying in an area too close to a major airport or military structure would get him noticed even with the cloaking magic he'd mastered after the great war.

Radar, as he'd learned after a very close call with some missiles, simply bounces off of what is there and doesn't 'see' in the way a human does. He'd been forced more and more to blend into the society he had grown to despise only a little less sense Rin had been with him. The girl had passed ages ago, her line was prolific though and he often kept track of the various bloodlines she'd left on the planet in her wake.

They had begun to land and his lips drew downward as the pressure in his ears grew to the point it was painful. Most demons didn't like it, his own background and nature made him more sensitive to it and he was stuck sucking it up with a hope it wouldn't last too incredibly long.

He disliked America, he supposed it had some lovely countryside in it's own right, particularly in the northwest where people became fewer and fewer. Sadly, every trip he had made here in the last few decades was simply to deal with the messes fool demons left when they bred with humans but couldn't teach the offspring correctly. More and more the inbreeding of demon and human had left full demons moving to clean up the train-wrecks left in their wake,before everyone was given away by the ones too unintelligent to master magic to hide their true forms.

It wasn't always an issue, certainly there were many communities where half-demons blended just as well as demons, as the blood watered down usually helped from creating any true issues. There were chance mutations popping up more and more in recent years though and as each ruler of a clan was required to keep his own demonic brethren in control he rarely left his home in Japan to travel until some idiot made a mistake.

This time he'd been lucky as Jaken had been in the area and helped to cover up the majority of it, disposing of the evidence before the police could get to it but not before some meddling human had taken photos of it.

The technology they had created over time was much more of a burden than a boon for his kind, they were being driven further and further away, forced to hide like poor shadowed remains of the statuesque creatures they had once been. Pictures, video, the quick way in which media was processed almost anywhere, it was all too easy to make a small mistake become the thing that revealed them all.

The plane bounced twice and then settled quickly as they touched down at the airport, it was rather small compared to many but that was a welcome difference as it wouldn't take him long to get his luggage and his rental. The hotel was a bit of a distance in one of the cities dozens of suburbs and given that it was starting to snow again.

Some demon had either been with child or their mate had, the child had had a deformity of the ears, something not too uncommon in half-breeds. Even the strong blood of his father had produced the mutated Inuyasha. Much more rare in demonic blood on a lower ratio, but possible. They'd panicked was the best he could assume, they'd killed the child and left it at the end of some dirty alley in the slummier parts of Omaha.

The human that found it had done so with rats chewing on it, there were even a couple that hadn't been frightened off by the photo taking and where still in the pictures she'd put online. Thankfully everyone was dismissing the sick photos all together as a twisted joke pulled off by someone with much too much time on their hands and access to various computer artistic editing software.

Not that he looked forward to getting off the plane for more than the end of the irritant to his senses. He was still left with, the unpleasant task, of tracking down and dealing with the creature that had murdered their own child and left them in a place where they could have revealed everyone else as well.

He didn't like half breeds, but killing a defenseless baby grated at him, there was no honor in such a thing, some of the worst demons he'd ever known still wouldn't have slain an infant. Whatever had occurred, no reason could be good enough to excuse such an act.

No, the grand days of demons had ended long ago, and they had become shallow mundane dopplegangers that only did their best to blend in with the rest of the often clueless human society. For most of them, they had been born into it, but there were some rare elders like himself that had managed to adjust to the new ways of the world before being hunted out for their incredible power and abilities.

He shifted quickly off the plane, sitting in the 'business' class isle made a quick exit applicable so he generally chose to do so if it was an option. He felt no reason to waste human currency on what was only a slightly bigger seat. His brisk steps carried him down the ramp and out into the terminal, moving toward the main airport where he could pick up his luggage and rent a car.

This was just another day, Lord of his realm only translated to policeman of the ignorant masses. He usually didn't have this much trouble, but things lately seemed to be taking a trend for the worse, a cycle he was realizing lasted about fifty years before cropping up. He would have to start making examples of those that would overstep their bounds, remind the young up-starts that there was a reason their parents always told them to behave. This was a good as first place as any to begin, when he caught the culprit he'd call a gather of the demons and show them what a true demon lord was capable of. Mercy, was something he'd never been known for, and he'd have to remind them that it wasn't something he liked to give.

He dealt with the formalities and signatures that came with renting an automobile, getting his keys before moving over to the nearby area where suitcases had already begin to pour out on the rotated platform. He got his pair before walking toward the parking lot where his rental should be, glad that it was inside and away from the poor cool weather.

He warmed his hands and pulled his jacket a little tighter before exiting, it wasn't out of any need other than to blend into the rest of the masses so they wouldn't think him too strange for not having a problem with the chilled weather here. He had never liked the changes America insisted on having from the rest of the world. They had to use the wrong measurement system, drive on the wrong side of the road, they very much seemed set on doing everything they possibly could in an incorrect manner then patting themselves on the back for being different and therefore right. Idiots.

Keeping his mental tirade to himself he tracked down the dark blue coat of his rental and got inside, starting the engine so it could heat a few moments before he started the drive toward his hotel. He knew he could have stayed closer to the city but the smell of larger cities he'd never liked, and felt no reason to subject himself to the stench while sleeping as well as awake.

He didn't wait too long, mostly for the temperature to get a bit better than outside and for the de-frosters to keep everything from fogging. Backing out he took the wide loops down the parking garage and moved for the exit, slipping onto the quaint highway of this city confused as to if it was large or small. The traffic wasn't as bad as most cities he'd visited, nothing compared to the hell it was to commute in Chicago or New York.

He'd normally only been here on more political business, it being at the center of the United States it wasn't too uncommon that meetings took place here between all manner of needs with both his false human job and the needs of the demons. When you left the downtown area it held a certain rustic loveliness. He was admiring the fields of snow as he got into the suburb where he was staying, only half paying attention. He had been driving the contraptions sense shortly after they'd been invented so he had developed a certain natural ability with them.

He was considering how nice the natural build of ice on a tiny creek was. Beneath a bridge he was crossing when he felt something out of the ordinary and hit the gas out of a sixth sense, speeding up just in time to avoid being slammed into by another car that had careened out of control and likely would have pushed his car over into the river despite the rail. The worthless human driver, a woman from the short glimpse he'd had of her, bounced from the metal rail leaving a deep dent and spun across the bridge back the way she'd come from.

He frowned a bit as the offending car only came to a stop when it hit a pile of snow built from plows passing through. He glanced back toward it and pulled his own car off to the side, if he didn't make certain she wasn't injured then it could come back on his head.

It was only a few minutes before her car appeared back over the ridge, sporting a dent for it's spinning mayhem. The driver pulled it up behind his rental and stopped, reaching over to dig in their glove compartment. Troublesome, every last one of the humans...

ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo

She put it in park and started to look for her insurance card as he began to walk toward her car, digging through the piles of papers she'd shoved in the glove box until a sharp rap at her window drew her attention back. She reached over to lower the window out of reflex and found her jaw falling as the soft sound of the electric motor in the door lowered the drivers side window steadily.

The man bent slightly over her window and staring at her with a cool expression was the spitting image of Sesshomaru, but without the demonic marks, golden eyes, or silver hair. His eyes were an impossibly deep blue and his hair a raven black, but the bangs were cut the same way, the features were the same, the build. The manner in which his expression seemed to both root her to her seat and insult her as if she wasn't worth looking upon was so spot on she couldn't manage to gather words and only realized her jaw had dropped when a snowflake drifted in and hit her tongue.

"Are you all right miss?" His voice...it was the same too, the deep timber that instantly called attention without the slightest attempt to do so. It sounded about as prideful as ever, a bit irritated, though there was a politeness and that foreign element made Kagome doubt her tired brain.

"Sesshomaru? No...I...I'm fine...you just...look like someone I knew once...a long time ago." She managed to stumble the words out after another long pause. Looking away as she'd been staring, but then looking back again, her brain demanding to know what in the world was happening given the bizarre coincidence.

A dark brow rose sharply as she stated his demonic name so freely and notably, without the correct title attached, she didn't appear to even be aware of her rudenesst. What sort of human could know his demonic name? She smelled human, and no spell existed that could fool his sharp nose.

His blue eyes were staring at her as he thought to himself at the unexpected turn of events. _ "She does seem vaguely familiar, and there's some scent mingled with hers that reminds me of Inuyasha..."_

The half-breed had died about a century before the present though so such a thing was impossible, it could have been another half-dog demon, he'd come across similar scents in the past, but this was so close it was hard to ignore. Then there was the feeling in the back of his mind like he should know her but couldn't place her.

"How do you know that name?" He finally asked, his brow settling back into place as the poker face returned in full.

"...no? It can't be you can it? Are you Sesshomaru?" She blinked slowly, then rubbed her eyes. _"Maybe I did crash and I'm dying right now. This guy probably thinks I just slammed my head really good when I was doing impromptu ballet with my car on the bridge."_

"Who are you?" He didn't answer the question, instead posing another as she ignored his first. Only years to practice patience kept it neatly in place.

"I'm Kagome." She said hesitantly. "I...um..."

That's all she managed, she wasn't even certain what to say, all that time of hoping to see Inuyasha again and now she'd only managed to find his older brother that had wanted her dead the majority of the time she'd known him in the feudal age.

Then her car flickered and died and she was distracted enough to frown at it, reaching to try to start the engine again, she really didn't want to walk home. She didn't think she'd done that much damage, in the wild spinning she hadn't even realized how bad the slam against the rail had actually been.

The name had been enough to feed the flames of his long memory and he blinked slowly at her as she fought with the car. This had been the priestess that had helped them fell that worthless half-breed some ages before? Around the same time he'd given Rin to the village elder to take care of her. He recalled defending her from a raging Inuyasha, how his younger brother had lived as long as he had still boggled the demon lord.

Yes, he was certain it was the same one he'd protected then, it'd only been a year or so that she'd been involved with his brother and the demon hunters then. Inuyasha had spoken of her though on rare occasion when he'd been drinking. The pair had eventually formed a basic sort of alliance, he'd helped to keep the demons and half-breeds protected during the great war. He'd died in Hiroshima when the blast hit, though there was the amusing fact that it'd taken a human nuclear bomb to finally bring him down. He'd been well into the equivalent of being in his sixties for a human by then.

He'd never mated again, he'd occasionally rumbled about the priestess being from another time and place and how one day he'd get to see her again. This was usually shortly before he passed out for several days after the bender, so Sesshomaru had never taken it seriously.

She could simply be some descendant but her smell was too familiar, the stories too much of a coincidence, he wasn't convinced she was the same woman, but neither was he completely skeptical either.

"If you would like, I can drive you somewhere." He finally offered politely, his attention shifted to this fascinating new puzzle. If she somehow could time travel...perhaps there was much she could be used for. "It seems your car isn't working at the moment at least."

"Yeah." She frowned a little, it had begun to snow a bit more and a small layer had appeared on the man's shoulders and head as thick as the one on the hood. He didn't even seem concerned with the chill while she was starting to shiver with just the gusts from the window. "I think I should just hire a toe truck, do you have a cell phone I could use?"

She of course hadn't remembered her charge hers, again...

"My name isn't Sesshomaru anymore." He stated, wanting to keep her from tossing it around freely. "The days where I used that name ended long ago. You can call me Valen. Come on, you can hire a tow truck from your residence."

He opened the door, having no intention of taking any form of negative answer, there was too much he still needed to know. If she could travel through time, and still possessed her powers as a priestess, then he'd have a use for her after all.

**End Chapter**

So, some history on what's happened/is happening with Sesshomaru and what happened with Inuyasha. Gotta love literally running into an old old old battle buddy.

-Nera

Thanks so much for the feedback and reviews, I do luvs them muchly. They're why I worked out my second chapter ;)


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